Charles Blomfield

A self-taught artist Charles Blomfield travelled extensively using all manner of transport and walking long distances to document the New Zealand landscape. These journeys provided Blomfield with images which later became souvenirs and were often sold to visitors to New Zealand. His meticulous attention to detail was an embodiment of 19th century New Zealand landscape art. This style of painting was no longer popular in 20th Century New Zealand when artist such as McCahon and Wollaston were emerging.

Blomfield was lucky enough to view the Pink and White Terraces several times before they were destroyed in the eruption of Tarawera in 1886. On first sight he found them ‘exceedingly beautiful and graceful’. His sketches and paintings are among the few remaining visual records of the terraces.